1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus having an improved printing medium feeding path.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus is an apparatus that prints an image on a printing medium, e.g., paper, according to an input image signal. As one type of the image forming apparatus, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus is configured such that a light beam is scanned to a photosensitive member charged to a predetermined electric potential to form an electrostatic latent image on an outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive member, the electrostatic latent image is developed into a toner image by adhering a toner to the electrostatic latent image, and the toner image is transferred and fused onto paper. The printed paper is discharged to the outside of a housing of the image forming apparatus by discharge rollers.
The conventional image forming apparatus includes a printing medium feeding unit to supply a printing medium, a printing unit to print an image of letters or pictures on the printing medium supplied from the printing medium feeding unit, and a printing medium discharge unit to discharge the printed printing medium.
In the conventional image forming apparatus as constituted above, a shape of a printing medium feeding path is determined dependent within structures of the printing medium feeding unit, the printing unit and the printing medium discharge unit and arrangement of components of the respective units. The printing medium feeding path of the image forming apparatus is generally shaped in an L-type, a C-type, an S-type, or the like. The image forming apparatus can be classified as a front-in-front-out (FIFO) type or a front-in-side-out (FISO) type according to supplying and discharging directions of the printing medium.
However, the above conventional image forming apparatus is configured such that the printed printing medium is discharged to a printing medium discharge tray while a printed surface of the printing medium is directed upward. Therefore, when a plurality of sheets of printing media are printed, the printed pages are arranged in a reverse order, which inconveniences a user having to manually arrange the printed pages in a correct order.
To solve such inconveniences, the discharge unit includes a first discharge roller which conveys the printed paper rearward from the printing unit provided in a front portion of the image forming apparatus, a reverse roller which reverses the moving direction of the paper, which is conveyed by the first discharge roller, from the rearward to the forward, and a second discharger roller which discharges the printed paper, whose moving direction has been reversed, to the outside. Thereby, the printed paper is discharged while the printed surface of the paper is directed in a down direction.
Because the printing medium is picked up rearward from the printing medium feeding cassette and conveyed forward to be printed, and then the printed printing medium is discharged to the discharge tray provided at the front portion of the image forming apparatus, the above-described conventional FIFO type image forming apparatus has an advantage of easy feeding and retrieving of the printing medium.
However, in the above-described conventional image forming apparatus, the reverse roller should be rotated sequentially in a forward direction and a reverse direction in order to perfectly discharge a sheet of printed paper to the outside. Thus, in a case where a plurality sheets of printed paper are intended to be discharged successively, at least until the preceding sheet of paper to be discharged passes away from the reverse roller, the following sheet of paper to be discharged should be kept in a standby state. If increasing a discharge speed, there is a problem such that paper jams occur in the discharge unit.
Also, because the conventional image forming apparatus is provided with a motor to drive the reverse roller, in addition to a motor to drive the first and second discharge rollers, manufacturing cost is increased, and the discharge unit has a large bulky size.